China Ballet

During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s wife, Jiang Qing, leader of the “Gang of Four”, tried to make the Peking Ballet work as a model for the rest of Chinese companies. In this film, dancers and Ms Dai Ai-Lian, the company’s director, speak about their personal experiences during the Cultural Revolution: exile to the countryside, harsh work, and having to give up dancing for reasons they still fail to understand. Interviews are interspersed with rehearsals from Swan Lake, the first ballet to be staged after Mao’s death.